10 Steps to Successful Selling On eBay

Most people who venture out on eBay do so without adequate
planning.

Unlike its earlier days when anyone could list a couple of items and make decent returns, it is not very easy
currently to realize any viable profit on eBay without carefully planning out your selling strategy.

Here is a list of ten steps that can help you successful launch out as a business on ebay:

1. Establish a market in which to deal

If you’re interested in selling certain types of products, take some time to research about them. Find out what
items have consistent demand and those that tend to be one hit wonders. This research data you collect initially
may not be useful right away but will surely be priceless later on, when sustainability matters most.

Market research shouldn’t stop once you start selling; you just need to refine it and you’ll soon realize that
you can easily spot those one or two items that tend to sell for a good price always.

2. Keep an eye on the competition

When you’ve settled on a particular category, try to find out how other sellers in the same category are going
about it. Watch and learn the way they strategize and most importantly, look out for areas with flaws in their
strategy because this is where you want to catch them unawares and beat them at their game.

3. Identify a product

This is one of the key factors for a successful eBay business. It’s not just about finding a product but also
getting a supplier with the beast rates for that product. Call up a couple of suppliers and try to get the best
deal. If a supplier’s prices are slightly lower than what you’ve seen on eBay, then you’re off to a good start.

4. Humble beginnings: start small

It’s important to have a humble start on eBay. You’d be ill-advised to
start by throwing thousands right from the go. The beauty with starting slow is that you get to test what
works and what doesn’t and the possible shocks that may come don’t through you out of business completely.

5. Use ‘trial and error’

Anyone who has succeeded on eBay can tell you that they tested a range of strategies before finally finding one
that worked. There’s really no shame in tying out various strategies until you find a good niche on eBay.

6. Have a business plan

It really doesn’t have to be some complicated, formal document to present to potential investors. It can be a
few pages that outline the opportunity for the market you’ve identified, your most probable strategy, a budget,
plus pros and cons.

7. Invest and grow

You can now inject more money into your venture. Start spending more time on your business, buy inventory and
set weekly sales targets, increasing it each week.

8. Formalize your business

Once you’re fully up and running and have made a couple thousand dollars in sales, it’s time to register your
business. Just leave this for a lawyer, at a small fee of course.

9. Automate

Before long, you’ll realize that most of the things you write are the same day after day, in emails, product
descriptions and so forth. An automated tool will make your life much simpler and give you more time to focus on
other areas.

10. Persist

If you’re in it to succeed, you need to keep one attribute in mind: persistence. Most times, it’s the difference
between success and failure. Basically, when things get rough, tough up too.

When you feel that you’ve really got rhythm, you can start thinking about quitting your job.